Sometime next week, after Anita Evans is through packing and saying her goodbyes, the veteran Lubbock teacher will leave home for good.

She'll travel one final time through quiet halls, past deserted classrooms in the building where she has taught students and, in some cases, their children for 22 years. Then she'll walk away from Hunt Elementary School with all the other teachers, administrators, staff and students.

''It's like leaving home for the first time, I guess, because this has kind of been my home for 22 years,'' Evans said earlier this month.

Hunt is one of three elementary schools the Lubbock Independent School District is closing when the school year ends Thursday. Posey Elementary and Stubbs Elementary also will be shut down as part of a cost-saving reorganization plan.

Evans, a native of Lamesa, has spent her entire teaching career at Hunt, where she has taught computer technology for the past two decades.

Hunt Elementary School, 1966-2001

Address: 415 N. Ivory Ave. n Opened: Sept. 6, 1966

Built: 1966 n Closed: May 24, 2001

Cost: $318,610

Named in honor of: George M. Hunt, Lubbock pioneer, teacher, businessman and school board member. This is the second Lubbock elementary school named in honor of Hunt. The first was opened in 1918, closed in 1961 and demolished in 1964. It was Lubbock's first brick school building.

First principal: Charles Kennedy n Current principal: Melissa Gebhart

Mascot: Cosmo the Comet n School colors: Red and white

Student enrollment when closed: 210 n Number of teachers when closed: 25

Number of staff when closed: 14 n Future of building: uncertain

Closing quote: ''I will have to take another five or six days (after school ends) to pack because I don't want to do it in front of the kids. That kind of sends the wrong message: 'I'm packing up, you all might as well pack up, too, and go on home.' '' Anita Evans, Hunt teacher, 1979-2001.

The building was opened in 1966 when LISD had an enrollment of 32,377 and a plate lunch in the new school's cafeteria cost 40 cents. Hunt had about 200 students in 1979 when Evans arrived as a reading teacher. New classrooms were added in 1985, and the enrollment increased to about 350. Now it is closer to the 1979 level, Evans said.

She has every student in school, except the 4-year-olds, in her classroom twice a week. She expects teachers and staff will have a harder time dealing with the closure than the students after the final day of classes Thursday.

''I guess it will be an emotional day,'' she said. ''We have some things planned with our kids where it will be more of a celebration party than a tearful parting. I don't know how emotional the kids will get. I don't think it's going to impact them until they have to walk in another building next year.''

Evans, a widow with two grown children who attended LISD schools, has been reassigned to Alderson Academy, where many of the Hunt students will attend next school year. She will be one of two computer technology teachers at the school for third- through sixth-graders.

''The kids need teachers who want to be there and work with them,'' she said. ''I've always enjoyed this community and enjoyed the children. They're loving children.

''I'll have my kids, the ones from this building. That was one reason I felt it was important to stay in this community, because the kids don't need to feel like they were totally abandoned.''

Evans certainly doesn't favor abandoning Hunt Elementary, which sits alone at 415 N. Ivory Ave., southwest of Estacado High School. She said she supports the decision as a ''team player'' in LISD.

LISD has not announced future plans for the building, the second school named for Lubbock pioneer and civic leader George M. Hunt. The original Hunt Elementary, at 17th Street and Avenue N, was opened in 1918, closed in 1961 and demolished in 1964.

Evans hopes that fate doesn't await the second Hunt Elementary.

''It's such a pretty building, always clean and bright and cheery,'' she said. ''I've always thought it's a beautiful campus. You can step outside in the mornings and see the skyline of (downtown) Lubbock, Canada geese grazing on our lawn or the robins just having a heyday out there. It's just beautiful.''